Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Organization and Nature of Business

v3.23.1
Organization and Nature of Business
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2023
Organization and Nature of Business  
Organization and Nature of Business

1Organization and Nature of Business

Virios Therapeutics, Inc. (the “Company”) was incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware on December 16, 2020 through a corporate conversion (the “Corporate Conversion”) just prior to the Company’s initial public offering (“IPO”). The Company was originally formed on February 28, 2012 as a limited liability company (“LLC”) under the laws of the State of Alabama as Innovative Med Concepts, LLC. On July 23, 2020, the Company changed its name from Innovative Med Concepts, LLC to Virios Therapeutics, LLC.

The Company operates in one segment as a pre-revenue, development-stage biotechnology company focused on advancing novel combination antiviral therapies to treat diseases associated with a viral triggered abnormal immune response. The Company is developing its initial product candidate, IMC-1, for people who are suffering from fibromyalgia (“FM”). Research has shown that the herpes virus could be a potential root cause of FM. IMC-1 is a novel, proprietary, fixed dose combination of famciclovir and celecoxib, both of which are drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) for other indications. IMC-1 combines these two specific mechanisms of action purposely designed to inhibit herpes virus activation and replication, thereby converting activated herpes virus back to dormancy and/or by keeping the herpes virus in a latent or dormant state. The famciclovir component of IMC-1 inhibits viral DNA replication, thus inhibiting upregulation of the herpes virus. The celecoxib component of IMC-1 inhibits cyclooxegenase-2 (“COX-2”) enzymes used by the herpes virus to amplify or accelerate its own replication. IMC-1’s synergistic antiviral mechanism represents a first-in-class medicine designed specifically to inhibit both herpes virus activation and subsequent replication, with the goal of keeping tissue resident herpes virus in a latent state.

Public Offering

On September 19, 2022, the Company entered into an underwriting agreement with ThinkEquity LLC (the “Underwriter”) in connection with the issuance and sale by the Company in a public offering of 10,000,000 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $0.50 per share (the “Offering”), pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-263700). The Offering closed on September 22, 2022 and the gross proceeds from the Offering were $5.0 million. The net proceeds of the Offering were approximately $4,490,605 after deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and offering expenses payable by the Company. In conjunction with the Offering, the Company granted to the Underwriter 500,000 warrants to purchase shares of the Company’s common stock at an exercise price of $0.625 per share, which was 125% of the Offering price.

Material Uncertainty

Since its founding, the Company has been engaged in research and development activities as well as organizational activities, including raising capital. The Company has not generated any revenues to date. As such, the Company is subject to all of the risks associated with any development-stage biotechnology company that has substantial expenditures for research and development. Since inception, the Company has incurred losses and negative cash flows from operating activities. The Company has funded its losses primarily through issuance of members’ interests, convertible debt instruments and issuance of equity securities. For the three months ended March 31, 2023 and 2022, the Company incurred net losses of $1,516,864 and $3,960,308, respectively, and had net cash outflows used in operating activities for the three months ended March 31, 2023 and 2022 of $1,698,450 and $2,656,017, respectively. As of March 31, 2023, the Company had an accumulated deficit of $57,690,071 and is expected to incur losses in the future as it continues its development activities.

As of the date these financial statements are issued, based on reasonable estimates, current cash is sufficient to fund operating expenses and obligations for at least 12 months. Currently, there are no planned research and development activities for the next 12 months other than carryover costs associated with completing the final reports for the Company’s FORTRESS (Fibromyalgia Outcome Research Trial Evaluating Synergistic Suppression of HSV-1) study for the treatment of FM and the chronic toxicology program; regulatory consulting; continued salaries and benefits; the on-going grant to the Bateman Horne Center for the fully funded investigator-sponsored study in Long-COVID; and manufacturing and development of IMC-1 for the proposed pharmacokinetic/food effect study.

In September 2022, the Company announced the top line results from its FORTRESS study in FM. Overall, the FORTRESS study did not achieve statistical significance on the prespecified primary efficacy endpoint of change from baseline to Week 14 in the weekly average of daily self-reported average pain severity scores comparing IMC-1 to placebo (p=0.302). However, based on the analysis of the FORTRESS data, community-based patients who have not participated in prior FM clinical trials demonstrated statistically significant improvement on the primary endpoint of reduction in FM related pain versus placebo, irrespective of when they enrolled in the study. The Company believes focusing the forward development of IMC-1 on these “new” patients represents a viable and manageable path forward. The Company met with the Anesthesiology, Addiction Medicine and Pain Medicine division of the FDA in March 2023. In April 2023, the Company received initial feedback that its proposed Phase 3 program is considered acceptable pending review of its final chronic toxicology program results that were submitted to the FDA in May 2023. The Company expects to raise additional capital within the next year to complete clinical development of and to commercially develop its product candidates, including any plans for a Phase 3 program and any new product development. The Company will need to finance its cash needs through public or private equity offerings, debt financings, collaboration and licensing arrangements or other financing alternatives. There is no assurance that such financings will be available when needed or on acceptable terms. The financial statements do not include any adjustments to reflect this uncertainty.